Month: October 2017

In this lesson we will look at the chords for the first 9 bars of “Stella By Startlight.” We will use Drop 2 chord voicings to create a comping pattern which is melodically and rhythmically interesting.

We will achieve our goal by following these steps.

Learn to play the Drop 2 chords we need.

Arrange them so they create a melodically interesting melodic line.

Add extensions to the chords.

Add jazz rhythms

Take a look at the chord voicings below and make sure you can play all of them. Also important to note is that no positions or chord names such as “Cmaj7” are given. You will need to find the roots for each of the chords. Once you know where the root of each chord is, you will then be able to move them around and play them in any key.

In this lesson, we will look at soloing in a Bebop style using a technique I call “targeting 3rds.” This technique will help make your soloing sound like you are always right on the changes. The most important aspect of soloing on standards and Bebop tunes is to sound like you are playing on the chord changes and not just wandering around the modes. An important characteristic of a great Bebop solo is that you can hear the chord changes in the soloing even when no one is comping.

The way to achieve this is to always make the first note of a new chord change one of the chord tones. Making the 3rd of the chord the first note you play for each new chord is one of the strongest ways to express the sound of the chord.

The first step is to practice playing only the third of each chord for either a standard or Bebop tune. As an example, let’s look at how we can apply this to the standard “Lady Bird.”

In this lesson, we will combine 3 scale forms to produce fingerings to play scales across 3 octaves. The scale forms are standard fingerings used to play major scales. First we will look at 3 major scale fingerings.

*Note: White notes are the roots of the scale.

Root 3rd fret

Root 10th fret

Root 15th fret

Visualizing all 3 scales at the same time on the fingerboard, we end up with the following.

Green Dolphin Street is one of my favorite types of standards to improvise on. It mixes modal progressions with Bebop. Take a look at the chart below. The “A” sections will be played using a modal technique and “B” and “B1” will be played in a Bebop style.

Let’s start with the “A” sections. For this modal section, we will use a technique called “Common Tone Approach.” This is a great tune to demonstrate this technique because we have a “C” pedal tone through most of the “A” section. As the name suggests, we will use a common tone to help us generate the modes we need to improvise. In other words, all of our modes will use the “C” note as their roots. Let’s begin. Continue reading “Improv Lesson 2 (BeBop)”

You’ve probably noticed that learning jazz guitar involves practicing many different things from scales to chords to arpeggios and so much more. You may even start to realize that there is an overwhelming amount of material to practice. Yes, there is a lot to practice but it’s all very doable. Knowing how to effectively organize your practice time is critical to moving forward. So what do we do.

Although you do need to practice everything, you need to practice the areas where you are weak more often and areas where you are strong less often. In other words, work on new techniques and concepts should take up the majority of your practice time while leaving a little time to review techniques and concepts you are more confident with.

A practice timetable is an excellent way to organize your practice time. A timetable allows you to keep track of the things you need to practice, how much time you will spend on each and what you are practicing each day. This way you keep track of the things you practiced yesterday or last week and have a clear record of everything you have done and everything you need to do. It’s so easy to find yourself wrapped up in something new, especially when you are excited about practicing it. This can lead you to neglect areas that may not be one hundred percent and require attention. Continue reading “Practice Timetable”

Chord substition is a great way to get some extra millage out of the chords you already know. It’s also a great technique to find new ways to come up with interesting progressions. The basic idea is to use one chord in place of another.

Let’s start with a few simple examples.

The Basics

C6 = Am7

Cm6 = Am7(b5)

With these two examples, they are the same because they share the exact same notes.